Wild Holiday Nights: Holiday Rush / Playing Games / All Night Long

She put together a tray and let him take it out. She noticed he grabbed a stack of the business cards she kept on the counter and took those as well, handing one out with each sample.

Why hadn’t she ever thought of that?

She continued to work as he chatted with the group and eventually came back in with an empty tray.

“You received rave reviews, as usual,” he said. “And I had an idea.”

“What’s that?”

“Why don’t you let them decide on whether you should go to dinner with me tonight?”

“What?”

“Make them feel more involved. We can ask them if you should go to dinner with me.”

“Are you saying we should take a vote?” Her voice rose slightly, incredulous.

“Why not? Maybe if you can find more ways to get them involved each day, you’ll draw more and more people. That’s the point, right?”

Calla narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure you’re a cop?”

He grinned. “My sister’s in marketing.”

“I see. That was a good move with the business cards. But I think I can make up my own mind about dinner. If we can get enough work done, I think it would be nice. Thank you.”

And I might not say no to anything else you have in mind, either.

Not that she would throw herself at him again only to be rebuffed—she’d had enough of that—but...her eyes drifted down to his hands.

Gideon grinned, sitting back down after washing his hands again.

“You already told them to vote yes, didn’t you?” Calla intuited, and saw his smile widen.

She felt the responding smile tug at the edges of her lips, her mood lightening somewhat. It was kind of nice to have someone to talk to as she worked. She hadn’t shared a kitchen with anyone for a few years, and she’d missed it. Or maybe it was Gideon’s company in particular that was so nice.

“What about your own family? Don’t you need to be home for the holiday?” she asked.

He returned to his bell, finishing it up before walking to the freezer to grab another hunk of cake.

“No, not this year. That’s part of why I offered to help Nathan out. My mother passed away over the summer, unexpectedly. My sister invited me to her place in Arizona for the holiday, but honestly, it was easier to get away. I’ve never seen New York at Christmas, so I figured, why not?”

“I’m so sorry to hear about your mom. You were close?”

“We were. She raised us alone—my dad died in the line of duty when we were kids, so you know how it is.”

Calla swallowed hard. She did know, sort of. Her family had had their own share of close calls.

“I do. Dad was almost killed in an accident when I was twelve, and I lived in fear every time he left the house after that. For Nathan, Bill and Gina, too, for that matter.”

Gideon frowned. “Is that why you left? Too much worry?”

Calla looked up sharply. “I didn’t leave. I went to school, which happened to be here in New York. But yes, I suppose it was nice to be in an environment where I didn’t have to think about the danger they were in every day or listen to all of the police and fire reports over dinner every night.”

“Not to mention how much of a pain in the butt it had to be when your older brothers were all cops, too,” Gideon said with a grin, lightening the mood. “Had to make dating tough.”

She rolled her eyes, laughing. “You have no idea.”

She and Gideon worked and chatted for a few more hours, until the skies outside the shop window darkened. When Calla got up to stretch her legs, she saw it was snowing like crazy out.

“I still love seeing the snow,” she said. “We got some in Texas now and then, but not like this.”

Gideon joined her at the window.

“This is the first snow I’ve ever seen—real snow, not the slushy Texas stuff,” he said.

Calla turned to him in surprise. “Really? You’ve never seen snow?”

He shook his head, staring out the window in awe that made the young boy in him shine through.

“Not like this.”

Her heart warmed. “Well, then, what are we doing in here?” She opened the door and went outside.

He joined her just in time for her to smack him in the side of the head with a makeshift snowball. The snow was soft and fluffy, so no harm done. Calla laughed at his momentary shock, and then at the sheer glee in his expression as he scooped up some snow and threw it back at her.

He managed to get her at the back of her neck, and the snow slid down her back, making her wiggle as the cold snaked down her spine.

“Oh, good shot, but so cold,” she said, still laughing and shivering at the same time.

Then she caught his eye, how he watched her, and she stopped wiggling. Gideon’s dark hair was plastered against his forehead, wet from the snow, his cheeks ruddy from the cold. The look he leveled at her, though, was hot enough to make her forget the icy snow sliding down her back.

For a moment, so much heat leaped between them they might as well have been back behind the barn in midsummer rather than standing in the middle of a snowstorm.

Then he broke the connection, shaking the snow from his dark hair as he turned to go back inside.

Oh, no, you don’t.

Turnabout was fair play, and Calla hadn’t grown up with two older brothers without knowing how to hold her own. She scooped up some snow, quickly catching up with him as he walked back into the store. She grabbed the back of his sweater, dropping the icy bundle down inside.

His yelp was her reward.

When he spun around, wiggling as she had, she grinned and closed the distance between them.

“Wait. I know a better way to warm you up,” she said, pushing up on tiptoe and kissing him.

She meant it to be a quick kiss—or maybe she didn’t. Calla was exhausted, thrown off her game by the strange week and by being so close to Gideon for most of the day.

All she could think about while they’d been making those wedding bells was the kiss she’d had with him nearly a decade ago.